Familiar Friend

Early this morning we left for about an hour, and when we returned, we spooked a spruce grouse out of one of our snow-packed trails, where there was a teeny bit of gravel showing. It flew up into the trees right by our studio window. Had not seen one of these for a long time. He/she is still there about 4 hours later, and meanwhile, we've spread a little more gravel on the pathways that she or he might like.